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Press release

Celebrating Media Excellence in Promoting Child Rights

DHAKA, 24 September 2013 - UNICEF honoured 33 media professionals for their outstanding contribution to promote child rights in media during the last one year in the Ninth Meena Media Award 2013.

On the 21st birthday of “Meena”, the animated cartoon character who has championed the cause of children across South Asia, the awards ceremony brought children’s voices to the forefront through colorful cultural and drama presentations.

Information Minister, Mr. Hasanul Haq Inu, UNICEF’s National Goodwill Ambassador Arifa Zaman Moushumi and Jewel Aich and UNICEF Bangladesh Representative, Pascal Villeneuve, presented crests, award money and certificates to the winners at a colourful awards ceremony held in Dhaka in presence of media representatives, children and other guests.

Congratulating the participants and the award winners, Pascal Villeneuve said, “We admire your efforts and continuous support to make children voices heard through your journalistic works and programmes which is the main sprit of the Meena Media Award -- advancing child rights in media.”

By recognizing the important role of the media, he urged the media professionals to combat all evils, social prejudices and norms such as child marriage, child labour and inappropriate infant and child feeding practices.

The 9th Meena Media Award has generated overwhelming response from the participants. Award nominees were selected by a panel of judges through a competitive process from both print and broadcast media. Broadly divided into ‘creative’ and ‘journalistic’ categories, entries have been sought from print, television and radio under specific age groups.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd award recipients of each category and age-groups received Tk 50,000, Tk 25,000 and Tk 15,000 in cash prize respectively in addition to a crest. An 8-member expert panel of judges comprising of creative writer, veteran media professionals, writer, audio-visual experts and academics assessed each entry through a strict marking process where the names of the participants were replaced by a specific code number. The judges included Selina Hossain, Farid Hossain, Robaet Ferdous, Fahmidul Haque, Zakir Hossain Razu, Samia Zaman, Ratan Paul and Qadir Kollol.

Children who are living in the NGO-run drop in centres and come from disadvantaged families performed in the cultural programme. The programme was attended by guests from different sectors including government officials.

The Meena Media Award was introduced by UNICEF in 2005 to celebrate excellence in creative media and journalism in both print and electronic streams. The award is named after Meena, a popular animation character held dear by children and adults alike in Bangladesh. Meena epitomizes an iconic girl child who is a change agent in her community and whose stories champion the rights of children across the South Asia.

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About UNICEF

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. For more information please visit: www.unicef.org